Decision Support Tool for Sustainable Small to Medium-Volume Natural Gas Utilization

This study presents a simple tool to provide decision-makers data that will facilitate informed decisions in selecting utilization for small- to medium-scale utilization of stranded natural gas resources that would otherwise be flared. The methodology involves the simulation of different natural gas utilization technologies on Aspen Plus simulation software and utilizing the results to develop a tool on python that enables the user to assess recoverable valuable products from different natural gas profiles. Ten utilization technologies were implemented and six different natural gas profiles (rich and lean) were used as case studies to ascertain the capabilities of the tool. The results provide the user with the Net Present Values (NPV) of different technologies and the most profitable or infeasible utilization technology. The results also show the potentials of utilizing the gas over flaring. For very small volumes of gas the results favored the compressed natural gas (CNG) with positive NPV, and next electricity production. Small to medium volumes of lean gas favoured the turquoise methanol. Mini- Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) were the least profitable especially for small volumes. This tool can facilitate the evaluation of several gas profiles to assess the impact of utilizing natural gas over flaring in the sustainable future paradigm.